Young and Driven Out In The Mid-West

[Niko Molina]

Who I Am and How I Decided On Real Estate

I'm a young, 21 year old guy from Lima, OH looking to invest my money and begin a new adventure in doing so. From what some of my older friends that I know say, and from what some of you BP members have said, is that they wished they would have started in real estate at my age, or younger than they originally did, so that they would be reaping the benefits at their current age. They gave me some ideas of what they would have done, what somebody they know has done, etc. and it sparked up a light bulb in my head. It's an interesting field to me and I'm excited to get my feet wet.

Outside of this newly established real-estate journey, I work a 3-11 at a Honda engine plant, which provides me with stable income to invest with...especially in this low-cost-of-living area in the Mid-West that I reside in. In my free time I enjoy reading and researching various interests of mine and playing guitar. I enjoy working out and dieting as it tests ones discipline, self control and teaches one to work hard and to be patient in order to see results, which I feel has been a priceless attribute acquired and will transfer over to my real estate endeavours.

My Experience With Real Estate (or lack-thereof)
I have no real experience thus far except for everything that I've read, heard and watched. I'm attempting to prepare a much as I can before I get my feet wet. I'm reading blogs, posts, books, listening to Podcasts and watching Youtube videos from seasoned vets to try and soak up as much knowledge as possible. I'm trying to educate myself to the best of my ability. Education is the only experience I have with real estate and I'm still in the process of obtaining all of it. I have seen Ben Leybovich, who is residing in Lima just as I am, is an extremely active member here at BP and an even more successful RE investor on that note. I'm sure we'll be in touch often. We've got a nice little Chipotle meet slotted for next Saturday during the lunch hours. I'm really looking forward to that. 

What I Want to Accomplish 
I want to provide nice housing in the form of renting out SFH's, multi's and many-unit properties and to be a solid, friendly but firm, reliable landlord to families and young professionals around my area due to growing up with my family under a "slum-lord." I wish to not have others experience the conditions my family and I lived in. Of course, I am also in the RE field to earn my share of money, as all of us are. In due time, I wish to bring in $5,000/month in passive income after all of my monthly property maintenance/management expenses are paid for. I want to create a well-oiled A-team that works together flawlessly for all of my deals and properties and allow me to continue purchasing real estate while making sure everything runs smoothly producing cash in ALL of our pockets. I really don't see a "limit" or "end goal" to my real estate journey. Ie get 100 units, stop investing there and be happy with the current cash flow. I could. I won't doubt there are many that have an end goal - reach it - and then are done. But I see myself investing and investing over and over again owning many, MANY properties... growing bigger and BIGGER. You could say my 'end goal' is to grow my RE business as successful and as big as I possibly can over the next 40 years.

My Starting Plan

My initial plan is to house-hack my first and perhaps my second property (depending on how quick I can pay off my first), followed by purchasing multi-unit and even many-unit properties to rent out. I plan to pull the trigger on my first property in Spring 2016. I have until then to learn and soak up RE knowledge my young mind can absorb and retain.

Failing to prepare is preparing to fail. I try to prepare as much as I can in anything and everything that I do.

[Niko Molina]

Originally posted by @James Wise:

@Niko Molina

Welcome to the site.

Great thing about house hacking is you won't have to wait until you payoff your first property. With solid W2 income you should be able to qualify for several mortgages.

Good luck to you.

Exactly! I'll probably do an FHA loan with 3.5% or 5% down or whatever works for an FHA around here instead of putting 10% or 20% down (nice chunk of change) in the form of a conventional mortgage, so that I have extra money to either renovate, fix-up or to use for unexpected repairs on whatever multiunit I decide to purchase.

Then after a year of living there, which the FHA states I must do, I may attempt to purchase yet another multiunit to 'house hack' with a low or no down payment method of financing. With doing so, leaves me with 6-8 Units under 2 roofs in 2 years.

With having a solid W2 income, I will be using it to fund my REI's. That is my plan. I don't want to be working at this Honda plant my entire life - I just want to use the money I make from it... TO MAKE MORE MONEY. :)


@Ben Leybovich: I just have a feeling that won't be the case. ;)